My Worst Nightmare
by Iamafanoftoomanythingstoname
Summary: Ponyboy has a bad nightmare, but it's much worse than the other ones he's had before, and worse, he can actually remember this one.
1. The Nightmare

**Disclaimer: I don't own the outsiders.**

_Me and Darry were in the socs' territory. I didn't know exactly know why, though. Soda wasn't with us. Then I saw a red mustang coming up behind us, and we started to run. Then, I tripped and broke my leg. Darry stopped running and kneeled down to carry me. I knew the socs would definitely catch us if we slowed down. I didn't want us both to be killed._

_I said, "Darry, just go without me. Save yourself."_

"_No. You're not getting hurt. You are coming with me whether you like it or not," He said. I knew I couldn't argue with him anymore; he probably wouldn't listen anyways. So he picked me up and ran. The socs were getting closer._

"_Darry… we'll both get killed."_

"_No, we're not," he said. Then he carried me over to a bush and put me behind it to hide me._

"_Don't make any noise, or they'll find you."_

"_Hey, why aren't you hiding too?" I asked._

"_Ponyboy, I can't hide back there with you, because if we both hid in the same place and they found us, they would kill us both, and I can't hide somewhere else because I have a bad feeling that they would find me anyways. I'm just going to try to fend them off the best that I can. Ponyboy, in the chance that I don't make it, I want you to know that I am proud of you. Tell Soda the same thing, okay? Now, stay here and don't make a sound."_

"_Darry..." I said nervously. I didn't want to lose my oldest brother, especially since we had finally gotten through to each other. He motioned for me to stay quiet. He walked over to the socs. _

"_What do you think you're doin' in our territory, Grease? Especially by yourself?" One of the socs said._

"_You better watch it, talkin' to me like that," Darry said. He is a pretty muscular and tall greaser. I tried not to worry and told myself that Darry could flatten those socs into pancakes if he wanted to._

"_No, you better watch it. You're the one who is in our territory. Let's teach this greaser a lesson!" The one who seemed to be the leader said. Then he pulled out a blade. I saw Darry reach for his, but all he found was empty space. He must have left it at home._

'_No,' I thought. 'This can't be happening!' Then Darry went into a fighting stance. I saw five of them. 'Darry has to fight five socs with blades!' I thought, getting really scared. I wanted to jump up and help him, but I had a broken leg and he told me not to move. I just watched helplessly from the side. I watched him fight for a couple minutes, and it felt like hours. Then I saw one of them slowly edge around so that he was behind Darry. He lifted his blade._

"_Darry! Look out!" I screamed._

_Then he turned around and yelled at me, "I told you to stay quiet!" Then he saw the soc, but before he could do anything, I watched in horror as the soc drove the blade deep into Darry's back. Then he dropped to the ground, blood pouring from the wound._

"_No!" I screamed. The socs didn't seem to hear me. They got back into their mustang and drove away into the darkness. _

"_No…" I whispered. I got up, and I realized that my leg was no longer broken. I walked over to Darry's body and I felt like I was going to bawl until I dropped dead beside him, but I didn't do anything at all. Then Soda walked up next to me with huge eyes._

"_What happened here, Ponyboy?" He said in a quiet voice._

"_The socs killed him," I said. I felt like I was going to start sobbing. Soda was speechless. Darry was… gone. I didn't want to accept it, but I knew it was true. That meant that me and Soda didn't have anyone to take care of us. We were going to a boys' home. Soda isn't old enough to take care of me. I suddenly felt extreme rage run through me. I dropped to my knees and pounded my fist into the ground. Those socs killed my brother and ruined my life. I started to say every curse that I could think of. Soda was wide-eyed._

"_Ponyboy, calm down. What would Darry say if you said that in front of him?"_

"_He would probably ground me for a week and tell me to watch my mouth," I said, still angry at the socs. "I'm sorry, Soda. It's just that I keep losing everyone that I love. First it was mom and dad. Then I lost Johnny and Dallas. And now, Darry. I can't handle this anymore. I'm scared to lose you too, Soda." I hugged him tight. I was never going to let anything happen to him. I started crying._

"_It's okay, Pony. Shh. I'm still here."_

'_Yeah, but for how much longer?' I thought. I decided not to say that out loud. Instead, I said, "I don't want to go to a boys' home. What if someone just adopts me and not you? I would miss you a lot and I could never get used to someone besides Darry taking care of me. I'll never forget what he did." _

"_Don't worry about it. If that happens, we'll make sure that I come with you, okay?"_

"_Okay, Soda." Then I remembered what Darry told me earlier. "Darry said that he is proud of you." _

_Soda looked like he was going to start bawling, but he didn't. He only said, "Man, I never thought that I would say this, but I am going to miss him bossing us around." _

"_Me too." I felt pain well up in my chest. I was really going to miss him. I suddenly felt really dizzy. Then I saw darkness._


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up. Then I started screaming bloody murder and I felt Soda jerk in surprise.

"What's the matter, Ponyboy?"

"Soda, I don't want to go to a boys' home…" I whispered.

"What are you talking about? You're not going anywhere."

"But, Darry's dead." Soda looked at me funny.

"What? No he's not. Darry's just fine."

"No he's not. He's gone. You even saw it."

"Ponyboy, no. He's not gone. You must have been having a nightmare. Calm down. Can you tell me what happened in your dream?"

I didn't really want to talk about it, but I decided to tell Soda anyways. When I finished telling him about it, he just stared at me.

"Wow, that is a pretty bad dream. It's only a dream though. Try to get back to sleep."

Then I waited until Soda was asleep again. I guess I believe that it was just a dream, but it felt so real. I wanted to be one hundred percent sure that Darry was okay, so I sneaked out of our room quietly to Darry's room. I stood beside his bed and I was relieved to see him breathing. I decided not to wake him up since he had work in the morning. I started walking towards the door when I heard a noise. I turned around to see Darry sitting up in his bed, looking at me with confusion. I knew it was because I never came in his room before.

"What are you doing, Ponyboy?"

"I had a bad dream, that's all.

"That's all? Why did you come in here? Don't you usually talk to Soda about that stuff?"

"I already talked to Soda," I said. Then his confusion changed to concern.

"How bad was your dream? Was it worse than your other nightmares?"

"Yeah. Didn't you hear me scream?"

"No, I didn't."

"Oh. I thought that it would be loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood." I guess Darry can sleep through anything.

"Can you tell me about it?"

I didn't really want to tell him about my nightmare, but then I thought that maybe Darry could actually help me more than Soda this time, so I told him everything that happened. I remembered every last detail since it had scared me so bad. When I finished, he stared at me in surprise.

"Wow. You really didn't have any trouble remembering that one."

"Yeah, it felt so real. Sorry for bothering you."

"That's okay. Do you feel any better now?"

"Yeah. Thanks for listening."

"Anytime, Pony. Anything else you want to tell me? Because if not, I really need to go back to sleep."

"No, that's it. Goodnight," I said and then I walked back to my room and fell asleep. I never had that dream again.


End file.
